and just got home. I decided to eat one of the donuts I bought while out (there was a sale! As the shoppe will be closed until 1/5. Yay…) Anyway, the 1st page I open online every day is the NASA APOD, and here is what they put up today. Such a wonderful thing to see when I sit down to break my fast with a forbidden food and tea!! and relax a little reading blogs. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
(I don’t get why WP won’t accept these photos. I thought it was my puter, but I have a new one, and the pic is still not here. It’s a quick click, and a really nice page today, so please go see it. After all, SPACE-X’s photos are likely to be poor, if they even do this for us.)
December 18, 1865 Following its ratification by the requisite three-quarters of the states earlier in the month, the 13th Amendment was formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution, ensuring that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” “Selling females by the pound”
December 18, 1999 Julia Butterfly Hill descended from her tiny platform 180 feet up in a giant redwood tree (sequoia sempervivens) named “Luna,” after perching there for 738 days to protect it from loggers. Luna survived a chainsaw attack in 2001 but still stands. “The question is not ‘Can you make a difference?’ You already do make a difference.It’s just a matter of what kind of difference you want to make during your life on this planet.” – Julia Butterfly Hill More about Julia Butterfly Hill and Luna Luna Today Earth Medicine
Astronomers have trained the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on a galaxy named “Firefly Sparkle.” But the young galaxy may not invite you to its birthday party as it is already accompanied by galaxies newly named “Firefly-Best Friend” and “Firefly-New Best Friend!”
Firefly Sparkle does give astronomers a gift: the first glimpse of a typical galaxy in its early stages in the context of a very young universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez.
Indeed, the galaxy’s high redshift allowed scientists to date the light we see back to when the universe was just 600 million years old (it is now 13.8 billion years old).
Redshift is the phenomenon which occurs when the source of light moves away from an observer, stretching the light’s wavelength toward the red part of the spectrum. Redshift is due to the expansion of space itself and objects with greater redshifts are older.
Firefly Sparkle was first observed with the Hubble Space Telescope during a survey of the galaxy cluster MACS J1423.8 + 2404. This cluster is massive and as a result, it magnifies the light coming from objects directly behind it but in Earth’s line of sight.
This gravitational lensing effect combined with the sensitivity of the JWST allowed astronomers to study Firefly Sparkle in detail.
The images had enough resolution to show that most of the young galaxy’s mass is concentrated in just 10 star clusters. This makes Firefly Sparkle the farthest galaxy with well-resolved star clusters imaged with spectrographic instruments.
The team also discovered that the galaxy is gas-rich and has a total mass approximately 10 million times the mass of the Sun, which makes it similar in size to that of a progenitor Milky Way.
The authors suggest that observation of Firefly Sparkle could help us understand how the early Milky Way formed. Perhaps cosmic friendship bracelets are in order.
December 12, 1870 Joseph H. Rainey (R-South Carolina) took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first African-American Member of Congress. More about Rainey
December 12, 1916 Dr. Ben Reitman was arrested in Cleveland for organizing volunteers to distribute birth control information at an Emma Goldman lecture on birth control. He was sentenced to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine plus court costs. Dr. Ben Reitman
December 12, 1947 The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor over the AFL’s failure to organize workers in mass production industries such as textiles, automobiles, steel and rubber.
December 12, 1969 The Philippine Civic Action Group, a 1350-man contingent from the Army of the Philippines, left South Vietnam. The contingent had been part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam, similar to President George Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing,” the multi-national force in Iraq.
December 12, 1983 Seventy people were arrested in Boston outside a hotel where a “New Trends in Missiles” trade conference was being held.
Inside the hotel, over 1,000 cockroaches were released to symbolize the likely survivors of nuclear war.
December 12, 1986 From a pershing plowshares action 1984 Plowshares activists disarmed a Pershing missile launcher in West Germany. In a statement of intent the four said, “With awareness of our responsibility we understand that we are the ones who make the arms race possible by not trying to stop it.” Details of their action in Pershing to Plowshares
We are Starseeds every one of us – you & me, & me and you & him & her, & them & they & those Who know of this are truly blessed …
True for all living beings, beings living – not humans only, but ants & trees & the open breeze, things that breathe air or fire, water, earth all kinds of dust & dirt, particles a part of all, all a part of Everything that is in everything; Thus, it Sings!!! & its song is Life, & Life is!!! … a seed of Stars, the dust of Suns & Moons rocks & dust & outer smoke in outer space Floating in a bath of timelessness, counted, measured numbered by some species – others caring not; Science & Mathematics trying to plot Poetry in motion, Motion in a Helix’s curve, And Life on Earth becomes visible to You through the naked I!
